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Haute Cuisine, anyone?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Liam DayA little behind on this one, but I did want to direct people’s attention to a recent piece on the SAT in The Weekly Standard. Fascinating history and interesting little tidbits. (For example, did you know that the letters SAT no longer stand for anything?) It also raised in my mind a question. Objections to the SAT often center on alleged bias. One of the examples of bias most often cited (at least according to the article) is a question dating from the 60’s that asks students for an analogy to “runner is to marathon”. The correct answer is “oarsmen is to regatta”. In this narrow context, I would agree with the test’s opponents. A prep school student would clearly […]
Boston's proposed school assignment plan
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Liam DayToday’s Globe describes the coalition that is forming to fight back against Boston School Superintendent Carol Johnson’s plan to move from three to five school assignment zones to save roughly $10 million in transportation costs. My thoughts on the topic are, in no particular order of importance: 1) The opposing coalition is right. The city should not be reducing the number of schools from which students and their parents can choose, which is what would happen if the city moved from three to five assignment zones. I would argue the city should expand choice through charter schools and other mechanisms. 2) Which brings me to point #2: would this same coalition be willing to support charter schools as vocally as […]
Obama v. Patrick
/1 Comment/in Blog, News /byNo, silly. There is not going to be a lawsuit just because the President isn’t going to nominate His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (HETG to the BlueMassGroupies, see line 3). It’s that HETG has not once, to my knowledge, ever recognized charter schools during National Charter School Week. And below follows the proclamation made by POTUS. Hmmm, perhaps HETG v. POTUS is a catchier title for a blog entry. While pondering such imponderables, let me cue the presidential proclamation: Improving our schools is the collective responsibility of all Americans—business owners and workers, educators and parents, students and their communities. We must ensure that all students receive a high-quality education that delivers the knowledge and skills needed […]
The Trust Deficit Grows
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Liam DayYesterday, I got up on my soapbox and railed about the trust deficit our state and local leaders need to close before they think about closing the fiscal deficit. Well, today, unfortunately, based on some anecdotal evidence, it appears the trust deficit may be opening, not closing. Jim Stergios has an interesting post just below mine about the fiscal shell games going on in Haverhill’s school system and – poor Wilfredo Laboy – the Lawrence Eagle Tribune reported yesterday that the embattled superintendent was made aware of the illegal background checks his assistant was conducting long before it came out in the press. To turn his ridiculous quote back on him, where is Wilfredo Laboy’s transgression in all of this? […]
Paper cuts in Haverhill
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byShawn Regan reports in the Eagle Tribune that “the greatest myth in the [Haverhill] school district” is “that city schools have been losing dozens of teachers every year due to budget cuts.” Not so. But in truth, the number of teachers in the district has grown by four in each of the previous three years, according to information provided by the Haverhill teachers union — figures school administrators don’t dispute. Several School Committee members who have voted to eliminate teachers for several years in a row said they were surprised by the revelation. “The community and certainly the School Committee has believed teachers are going down every year because we’ve been cutting them,” School Committee President Scott Wood said after […]